The Oil Sector

KPC and its wholly owned subsidiaries

KPC, a public corporation, was established on the 21st of January 1980 by Law No. 6. This Law was promulgated on the basis of the authority granted to the Amir in the constitution in Articles 20, 21, 136, 148 and 156 and with due regard to Law No. 19 for the year 1973 relating to the Preservation of Petroleum Resources.

The Explanatory Memorandum provides that the purposes for establishing KPC is to create a single corporation that would own all the companies that are involved in the oil sector in order to achieve the centralization of the oil industry. By virtue of Article 8 of Law No. 6 for the year 1989 all the shares owned by the State in the Kuwaiti oil companies were transferred to KPC. These are KNPC, KOC, PIC and KOTC.

Historically these companies were partially owned by the State together with private investors. Through a series of legislation in mid 1970's these companies became fully owned by the State of Kuwait and hence are now fully owned by KPC.